Select Words of the Week:

Zhuzh (ZHo͝oZH)

Zhuzh means to add a little flair, a little sparkle, that extra something. It’s not about doing the most—it’s about doing just enough. You don’t redo your whole outfit; you zhuzh it with a scarf. You don’t redecorate the room; you fluff the pillows and call it a day.

The word comes from Yiddish roots and found its true calling in fashion and pop culture, where “zhuzh it up” is basically a polite way of saying, make it fabulous—now.

Zhuzh is powerful because it’s quick, creative, and low commitment. Small changes, big impact.

So the next time something feels a little dull—your look, your space, or even your mood—remember: you don’t need a makeover. You just need a zhuzh.

When There Are No Words

You know how sometimes you can’t find the right word for a feeling or an event?
That’s why we often might say, “There are no words.”

The compendium of the English language is often not useful in expressing our deepest emotions.

Maybe that’s when you might want to consider using a word from another language.

Here are a few:

• • Komorebi (Japanese): The interplay between light and leaves when sunlight filters through trees.
  • Meraki (Greek) may-rah-kee: Doing something with soul, creativity, or love; putting "yourself" into your work. 
  • Tartle (Scottish) tar-TUL: The hesitation or awkwardness you feel when introducing someone because you have forgotten their name.
  • Toska (Russian): A mixture of pining, restlessness, melancholy, and spiritual angst. Deep, often untranslatable, emotional state combining profound melancholy, yearning, and spiritual anguish without a specific cause. It represents a deep aching, longing, or nostalgia. It is a feeling of emptiness, not simply sadness.

How to Use Triflin’

If you are looking for a word that describes your impatience with something or someone, try Triflin’

It was first adapted by African Americans in the South and the Midwest. And then the definition exploded.

This word evolved from a formal, dry adjective (meaning trivial, small) into high-energy, culturally significant slang.

(I was listening to an interview with Tayari Jones, novelist, on Fresh Air recently: She described it as a moral failing that can be scaled up, and it can be scaled down.

You can be triflin (for example) if you neglect to put lotion on your legs and you can be triflin if you are a cheater.

When you call someone "triflin’," you aren't saying they are "small"—you are saying they are lazy or just "no-good."

It is used in the Blues to describe cheaters –
      For example, in Blues legend Blind Blakes’s song “I was Afraid of That”.
      Caught a train down to Tennessee
      While I was gone, my baby trifled on me

It’s also the word you use when someone’s behavior has finally exhausted your patience!

Is That a Collage or a Montage?

• Use a collage if you want to showcase a collection of memories (like a mood board or a wedding poster) where each individual piece remains distinct.
• Use a montage if you want to show a progression of events, tell a complex story quickly, or create a "dream-like" image where elements melt into one another.

1. The Collage: A Physical Layering
        The Feeling: It feels tactile and grounded.

2. The Montage: A Narrative Assembly
        The Feeling: It feels fluid and seamless.

What Was Old Is Cool Again

Have you noticed that some old words are being used by the young people. Three that I’ve heard are

groovy
cats (in reference to men or guys)
and whippersnapper

I like the word “whence,” a 13th century combination of “from” and “where,” what place,” because it is both grammatically efficient — two words instead of one — and fun to say.

For example:

Whence do you get the idea that you are in charge?
I wonder whence did the water come that’s all over the bathroom floor.
They still love the country whence they came.

Can you think of an old word that would be useful to bring back to everyday speech?

Ostracized

Comes from the ancient Greek practice of ostracism.

In its first experience with democracy, citizens voted to exile individuals seen as a threat to the state. The powerful oligarchs.

The term is derived for ostracon, meaning a shard of broken pottery used as a ballot to write the name of the person they wanted banished.

Citizens would vote to banish powerful politicians.

It also helped to reflect the Athenians' belief in the importance of civic engagement and the power of collective decision making.

Whomever they voted out was banished--forced to leave immediately and could not return to politics for 10 years.

Thither

A few days ago, Tom was telling us that his dad took etiquette classes (how to be a gentleman) at his fraternity when he was in college.

And among the things he learned was what each spoon was for and how to use it. For example:

The soup spoon should be used to scoop the soup thitherward.

I looked up thither.

Meaning of Thither: Away from the speaker. Over there.

Today we would just say there instead of thither.

Hither -- here and

Thither -- there

So, you can impress your friends (or not) by saying things like.

She looked over at the mountains and started to hike thither.

I spotted my brother hiding in the tree and headed thither to confront him.

Sir Paul loves the country. He traveled thither to spend the winter and wrote a song about the abbey.

Bully for You!

The word Bully originally meant sweetheart (to both men and women) in the 16^th century.

As an exclamation, "bully" (often used as "bully for you!") is an archaic term of praise or approval meaning "well done!", "good for you!", or Bravo!

Enthusiastic Slang: Pres. Theodore Roosevelt frequently used "bully" as an exclamation of delight, such as "Bully for you!" or "Bully, I say!" In that era, bully was used as an adjective, meaning “worthy, jolly, admirable”

Roosevelt coined the famous term "bully pulpit" to describe the presidency as a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda. He used the word "bully" as an adjective to mean "superb" or "wonderful". Therefore, the phrase originally meant a "wonderful platform," rather than a place to push people around.

Wow! How that word has evolved!

Videos discussed in the Tech Corner:

I went to Santa Fe to see great art (It almost made me quit.)

An artist's exploration of art galleries almost crushed his dreams of creating art—a trip to a museum of international folk art restored his passion.

Creating The Never-Ending Bloom

A Stanford University professor creates sculptures and 3D prints to ask and answer his questions pertaining to math, geometry, biology and nature.

Fighting Gravity (Hi-Tech Dance)

High tech dance troupe amazes audience and viewers.

Box

An exploration of the synthesis of real and digital space through projection-mapping on moving surfaces. This short film documents a live performance, captured entirely in camera.

“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.”

— Steve Jobs